North German Federation

The North German Federation was confederation of 22 North German states that existed from 18 August 1866 to 18 January 1871 after Prussia and several smaller states within its sphere of influence decided to create a single federation under a constitution. The federation's capital was Berlin, and it was effectively a Prussian-led alliance that had the power to oppose the Austrian Empire to the south, the Russian Empire to the east, and France to the west. The federation defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War, annexing Alsace and Lorraine and creating the German Empire after uniting all of the German-speaking regions of Central Europe (except for the lands under the Austrian Empire) under its control.

Culture
The North German Federation, as its name may have suggested, was a nation with an overwhelming majority of Protestant North Germans. In 1866, the federation had a population of 6,880,000 people, with over 92% being Germans and 8% being Poles, Czechs, and smaller groups.